First Impression
by Thorkone
Summary: Anna Ellis is a new hire at SHIELD. Her first day could be worse, but she's having a hard time deciding how. One-shot Annie/Phil. M for language.


"Do you understand the oath you are about to swear, that it is binding? Breaking the terms of it will be grounds for immediate dismissal and prosecution to the full extent of the law." The woman was repeating the words from a memorized script, I could tell. She lacked interest and refused to make eye contact.

"Yes." I wasn't sure what else to say. She thrust a form in front of me and offered a pen. I signed the paper without reading it. I'd read the orientation package thoroughly, and even made notes. I'd asked all my questions at the new hire seminar. I was ready for this job.

"I'll escort you to security to get your passcard, Miss Ellis," she offered and rose from her chair. She led me down a long hallway. I couldn't remember her name for the life of me. I had already come up with a million nicknames for her, but her actual name escaped me. And she was going to be my boss.

"Ms. Jenkins. To what do I owe the honour?" The security guard glanced at me and gave me a wink. He was kind of cute. In a security guard, wearing a uniform kind of way. Uniforms and suits, they were my weakness. I'd already nearly swooned about a dozen times just walking through the building to get to the new hire seminar.

"This is Anne Ellis. She is a new hire in Human Resources. She needs a passcard and identification. I trust you can manage that, Jackson?" Ms. Jenkins' had a way of speaking that just made you feel small. Jackson didn't seem fazed by her tone. He took the paperwork she held out and looked it over quickly.

"This says your name is Anna? Is that correct?" He gave me a pointed look. I felt my cheeks flush.

"Yes." I was queen of the one-syllable answer apparently.

"Ms. Jenkins, you should be ashamed of yourself. If Ms. Ellis is to be under your supervision, the least you could do is get her name right," Jackson chided her. Jenkins' eyes narrowed and she huffed and turned away.

"Escort Ms. Ellis back to HR when you've got her ready, Jackson." Jenkins stalked from the room without another word.

"Anna – can I call you Anna? Jenkins is a cranky old cow, but she's fair. As long as you're competent, you won't have any issues. I'm Jack Jackson," he held out his hand and smiled. It was a beautiful smile. "Welcome to SHIELD." His handshake was strong. He was probably close to my age, a little older and the playful twinkle in his blue eyes made my heart race, just a little.

XXX

Jackson regaled me with stories about the operations academy as he walked me back to the HR office. I found myself laughing, despite my nerves. I'd always been the nerdy quiet girl at the back of class. He had clearly been the star of the hockey team type.

"This desk appears to have your name on it, Anna. Good luck," he smiled. I felt myself blush.

"Thanks." I wasn't sure what else to say, but I was pretty sure yelling 'let's make babies' would be inappropriate. He was so hot though. I kinda wanted to say it. I watched him retreat, admiring his butt as he headed back the way we came.

"Damn. That's a nice ass." A dark-haired woman sitting at the desk across from mine leaned into the aisle to stare as he went by, and then waggled her eyebrows at me.

"Oh, uh, yes." I agreed. I hadn't been sure it was possible for me to blush more, but I could feel my scalp getting warm. She started laughing.

"I'm Erin. I think we were at the hiring fair together," she offered. I smiled and tucked my purse into my desk drawer.

"Could have been. I've found this whole thing very overwhelming," I admitted. "I guess I should go find out what I'm up to first."

"It's always making copies on the first day," Erin called as I headed toward Ms. Jenkins office.

XXX

I'm pretty sure she gave me a thousand different files to copy and collate, and it was already after lunch. There was a tiny user manual dangling from the edge of the copier that looked like it had never been used. I thumbed through it quickly and figured out how to program the machine to do everything Jenkins wanted without me having to stuff things through the damn thing a million different ways. I leaned back against the table in the copier room and waited. Click, thump, whirr. Click, thump, whirr. The rhythmic cadence of the copier soothed my nerves. I smoothed the front of my skirt and pushed an errant strand of hair behind my ear.

The copier shuddered to a halt. There was still a large pile of paper on the feeder waiting to go through. I sighed and looked at the display. A paper jam. I flipped through the manual again and found the information on how to fix the issue before popping open the front of the copier. I stepped out of my heels and shimmied my skirt up my hips a little before dropping to my knees in front of the machine. I pulled one lever and pushed on another and the internal workings of the machine fell open to me. The paper jam was easy to clear, and I closed everything up and pressed the start button again, again smoothing my skirt down my hips.

The copier beeped in protest. I checked the display again, and it was still reading a paper jam. I sighed, and resumed my position in front of the machine. I dropped the mechanism again and looked to the back of the machine. I could see a single piece of paper mangled on the edge of the heat roller. I crawled closer to the copier so that I could reach in, but even with my thighs pressed against the front of the machine, my arm wasn't long enough. I leaned back and assessed the situation. There was just enough room for me to tilt my head to one side to squeeze my shoulder in. I felt a little like a human pretzel, but I maneuvered my body so that I could just get the tips of my fingers on the piece of paper. I tugged gently and as the page popped free, so did a poof of toner, against my face and chest. I pulled away coughing, and caught the front of my blouse on the level I'd used to open the damn thing. I heard the button ping into the back of the machine.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" I exclaimed as I extricated myself. I slammed the copier door shut and pushed myself to my feet. When I turned around, I walked directly into someone who had apparently been waiting, quietly, and patiently, for the copier. He put a hand on my arm to steady me. I looked up at him and into a pair of amused, intelligent blue eyes.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry!" I gasped and then blushed. Cussing like a sailor on my first day, in front of god knows who. My mother would be horrified. "I mean –"

"It's okay. This copier gets the better of all of us." His smile was warm. He was older, but was in the typical SHIELD attire of a dark suit. And like every other SHIELD employee I'd met thus far, he looked damn good, nice shoulders, strong jaw. A pair of sunglasses was hanging from the breast pocket on his suit. I backed up a step to put some space between us and looked down. His eyes followed mine and then widened. My shirt was torn open from catching on the copier and more cleavage than I even showed when I was out partying was showing. My hand flew up to my chest and I looked back at the agent. The smile had returned and he met my eyes and kept them there. Points to him. The younger guys probably would have kept ogling my boobs.

"What colour would you say that is? Chartreuse?" He gestured to my bra that was still showing despite holding my blouse together with my hand.

"Lime green." I could feel the flush creeping down my chest. He held out a hand and then realized I was holding my blouse closed with my right hand and wouldn't be able to shake his. It dropped back down to his side.

"I'm Phil Coulson."

"Anna Ellis. Nice to meet you?" I asked. He smiled broadly. His eyes crinkled at the corners and I felt something pinch in my chest. It felt a bit like desire.

"It's a pleasure."

"Please tell me you aren't one of my supervisors because I don't know if this is something I can recover from on a performance appraisal," I forced a laugh.

"No, I'm a field agent. I don't come in that often, but I needed some paperwork for a member of my team," he reassured me. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, I don't think this copier is in service anymore. I may have broken it," I admitted.

"Let me take a look," he stepped past me and opened the door to the interior of the machine up. He squinted, and reached in to pull something out. He closed everything back up and pressed the green button on the top of the machine and it whirred back to life, continuing my copy job. He held out a small button to me. I took it from him and dropped it in my skirt pocket. I realized my skirt was still hitched up to mid-thigh and let go of my blouse to smooth it back down to my knees, and then to my horror remembered that my shirt was gaping open. I leaned past him to grab the stapler from the top of the copier and turned around to staple my top closed. I heard him chuckle and glared at him over my shoulder.

"I think these are yours too?" He held out my heels. My shoulders slumped and I dropped my head against the wall in defeat. I held out my hand behind me, and felt him hang my shoes on my fingers. "I'd like to buy you a drink sometime, Ms. Ellis."

I whipped around to stare at him in surprise.

"Really?"

"I'll be in town until tomorrow. Maybe tonight after work?" He asked. I opened my mouth to say yes and realized I couldn't.

"I'm sorry, I already have plans. I'm the first of my class to get a job. We're celebrating," I apologized.

"Next time then. It was a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Ellis," he smiled.

"And you, Agent Coulson," I agreed. He disappeared around the corner, probably in search of another copier.


End file.
